


Schaduw Van De Duivel

by vsulli



Category: Six of Crows Series - Leigh Bardugo
Genre: F/M, implied kanej, inej is only in this for like 2 lines at the end, kaz gets a dog
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-19
Updated: 2018-03-19
Packaged: 2019-04-04 11:44:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,357
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14019519
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/vsulli/pseuds/vsulli
Summary: The Devil's shadow will kill on command...and eat four plates of waffles if someone let him. (Kaz gets a dog with a super cool nickname)





	Schaduw Van De Duivel

People lurked in the Barrel, they were eyes in the darkest corners, ears at open windows, and hands that grabbed when the one they wanted would finally pass. Kaz could feel them all whenever he walked the streets, but he caused the lurkers to shrink back into their hiding places, the sight of him scarier than anything they could ever be. They could only watch him when he passed, staying silent and keeping to themselves, no one would ever dare to step out. 

However, it wasn’t only people who lurked in the dark allies of The Barrel, and Kaz froze when he turned and caught sight of a single, piercing, ice-blue eye seeming to float all on its own in the darkness. Kaz watched it disappear entirely when it would blink. It was raining, and he should have been seeking shelter, but there was something about the eye that had him rooted to the spot, not even when the thing stepped out into the dim light of the moon did Kaz leave.

Kaz sucked in a breath when he saw it, a tiny thing, barely bigger than his hand, darker than night and as skinny as his cane. He hardly paid attention to the signs of obvious starvation, instead he was staring at the scar that ran from where a left ear should have been to where an eye was missing. The scar looked as if it were a botched stitching job, Kaz had a scar like it running up his leg from when he’d fallen. However, that fall was an accident, a puppy missing both his left ear and eye could not have been anything but done on purpose.

“Where did you come from?” Kaz wondered as he kneeld down onto the wet ground, “what happened to you?” 

Dogs weren’t uncommon around Ketterdam, but the ones that strayed to The Barrel were always old, the ones discarded by the rich kids who had lost the appeal of a dog once they’d grown out of being cute little puppies. This one looked as if it had been a pet, but it was still young, and instead of getting treated like a member of the family, it looked to be tortured like a prisoner. Watching it walk towards him, Kaz remembered a time he’d wanted a dog, he thought they were necessary because every other farm in Lij had a dog, but his dad was allergic so he was always told no. He would never have treated one of his dogs like this, no one in the Barrel would, they knew what it was like to be helpless and vulnerable. 

No one shot at an unarmed man, no one. 

He held his hand out now, palm up, but the animal only stepped back into the shadow, just watching him, skeptical because of what its owner put him through. Sighing, Kaz dug into his pocket, looking for anything that would entice the dog to come to him. If only dogs knew the value of a few kruge.

“I will be right back,” he told the dog, holding up a finger as if it would make it understand him. He walked off, practically running, to the coffeehouse he knew was just around the corner, and ordered a couple of biscuits before running back, scared that the dog had run off in the time he was gone. Thankfully, he came back and it was still standing in its little corner, tucked up against the large garbage bin, trying to shield itself from the rain and stay hidden from the wrong sort who passed. Crouching again, he held out his hand, palm up, a crumbled biscuit covering his black gloves. He wouldn’t know what to say if someone had seen him now, crouched in an ally, treating a dog better than he treated most people. They’d laugh and say Dirtyhands did have a soft spot. 

Slowly, the puppy walked back out, sniffing at the contents of Kaz’s hand before taking a reluctant lick at them. He examined the scar closer as it ate, it was jagged, and the healing lumpy and uneven, it looked like the skin on Inej’s arm from where she’d had her Menagerie tattoo cut off. It looked like someone had taken a blunt knife to the poor thing’s ear and just kept hacking until the eye was out too. 

“How are you still alive?,” he asked sadly, he should have felt silly speaking to an animal, but he couldn’t really seem to care at that moment. The dog looked like it needed someone to talk to, like it had seen the horrors of the world and understood it all before it could even walk. “Wow you eat fast.” He pulled another biscuit out of his pocket and held it out, watching in amazement as it devoured that one too. When it disappeared, it looked back up at him, as if asking if there was anymore. “They were closing, that was all they had.” 

It just tilted its head to the side, not understanding, it stepped closer and nudged his hand, thinking he’d just produce another one out of thin air. As if realizing he was done feeding him, the dog barked, once, twice, just small squeaks but the look in its eye and the stance it took, told Kaz that it would attack if he didn’t get away.  

“Not afraid of a fight, huh? Imagine when you’re bigger, see how people get scared then, sometimes you don’t even have to bare your teeth.” It was still sneering when he reached out, but made no move to bite him when he scratched behind its one ear, it seemed to calm the dog, even getting it to sit back on its hind legs. It shut its eyes and if Kaz wasn’t petting it, he wouldn’t even know that there was something there. “I’m good at disappearing acts too,” he said, smiling when the blue appeared again, “a shadow.” 

* * *

If people cowered in fear when Kaz Brekker walked by, they jumped into canals when he was accompanied by his shadow. The dog looked as if it guarded hell itself, earning its scars from the demons while protecting the devil himself. 

The dog was a joke when he first arrived, trailing its new owner, too scared to be with anyone else. It used to nip at ankles, and now it tore out throats. It used to be the size of a dime, and now it rivaled the wolves that were locked away in Hellgate. 

Schaduw Van De Duivel, they called him. Kids whispered about him on school playgrounds and tourists recognized him when they climbed off their boats. He’d become Kaz’s second, his shadow, the only thing that put more fear into people’s hearts than Kaz himself. 

However, the Dregs just called him Schaduw, they feared him like the rest, but they loved him. The crow was their symbol, but Schaduw had become their mascot, the thing that set them apart from the rest. Schaduw slept at the Slat’s front door, and if he wasn’t there, he was laying at the boss’ feet, waiting for any instruction from the man who saved him. He was the two hundred pound puppy that played in the corners of the Slat and ate waffles thrown in the air. 

“He’s cute,” Inej said once. She was sitting on his office floor, Schaduw curled up on her lap as she scratched behind his ear. “Never took you as a dog person.”

“I’m definitely not a cat person.”

“You’re snobby like a cat,” she mumbled, Kaz finally looked up and narrowed his eyes. Ignoring him, she stood, letting Schaduw hop off her and take his spot at her side. On all fours, he reached nearly to her waist, and Kaz took a second to smile at the sight. “I’m taking him for a walk, do you want to come or are you going to neglect us even longer?” 

He decided to come, and he couldn’t lie, he liked the looks Dirtyhands, the Wraith and the Devil’s Shadow got as they peacefully walked through the streets of the Barrel. 


End file.
